How To Mod The 360 Version of Mass Effect 2

BACK UP COPIES OF YOUR SAVES PRIOR TO MODDING AS THEY MAY BECOME CORRUPTED!!!

I take absolutely no credit whatsoever for the software involved in modding the saves(Modio, Gibbed's Mass Effect 2 Editor, USB XTAF and Xport360).

To Mod the xbox360 version of ME2 you'll need:
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With the latest version of MODIO, you will ONLY need Gibbed Save Editor and MODIO.

The latest version allows you to access your XBOX USB and directly extract your career with MODIO, thus cutting out the need for Xtaf or Xport360.

A) One download with all 4 programs described bellow, if you download this you won't need to download them through the individual links bellow BUT still read all the instructions and descriptions to be aware of all potential problems first:

1) a Transfer Cable/Transfer Kit/USB(NOTE: for USB you need to use USB XTAF instead of Xport360)

The following warning is NOT a concern if using a Hard Drive and a Transfer Cable or a USB.

***WARNING*** If using a transfer kit for a memory card do NOT install the software Datel ships with it, instead adjust it the way that this video shows(****HUGE WARNING***** after adjusting your memory card the way the video shows DO NOT, EVER configure it when prompted by your PC or you'll need another memory card):

3) Modio, download from here: http://www.game-tuts.com/community/modio.php
****NOTE**** DO NOT worry about creating an account, logging in or paying for premium membership. You do NOT need any of those things for the purpose of modding ME2.

***WARNING*** once you open a save in Modio the interface should look like this: http://i42.tinypic.com/9j3uwz.jpg
and like this: http://i39.tinypic.com/2m7sqpw.jpg When you right click in the File Contents tab you should have the
options to Inject File Into Folder, Extract All and Delete. If you do not then you need a newer vdrsion of Modio but if you download from my link you should be OK. Also the newest version of Modio ***MIGHT*** be incompatible with Windows 7, I was trying to help someone else mod and apparently he wasn't able to download from my source while using Windows 7, not sure why.

****WARNING**** After it finishes downloading and you open it make sure to drag EVERYTHING into a
new folder on the Desktop. The Save Editor will NOT work if you just put it on the desktop by itself. You HAVE to run it from the folder where all its other components are at. Here's a picture of what it should look like: http://i41.tinypic.com/2h2ffrp.jpg

Now follow the next steps in EXACTLY that order:

1) Connect your Memory card to your Transfer Cable OR your Hard Drive to the Transfer Cable and then to your PC. OR plug your USB into your PC.

1.5) If using USB follow this and skip to step 4(all credit for step 1.5 goes to kregano):

a. Insert USB drive into XBox, format, then move one (1) ME2 save from
your HDD or Memory Unit to the USB drive.
b. Open USB XTAF
c. Go to "File," then click "Open Device."
d. Click "{dir}content" and then the next 4 entries until you come across a
file named like this: (Shep's first name)_(random?
number)_(class)_(dd/mm/yy of the save). Ex.: John_12_Soldier_050210.
e. Select the file and hit "Extract" the save file to your Desktop. Remember to back up this file somewhere other than the location where you extracted the save to.

2) Start Xport360 and open up your hard drive or memory card. If using hard drive go into partition 3 and into the second row of numbers from the top and it should make sense in english from there, if using a memory card go into partition 2 and into the second row of numbers from the top and it should make sense from there.

3) You'll want to find your character save on your storage device(NOT your individual numbered
save.....yet) which should be named something like this: Trethon_21_Soldier_280310 (Trethon is the name, Soldier is the class and 280310 stands fro the date the character was created 28 March 2010). Once you find it you'll want to drag it to the desktop.

4) Open Modio, click on the foler icon at the top-left corner, find your desktop and your character save and select open.

5) In Modio with your save open select the File Contents tab, right click somewhere in the
white space and Click on "Extract All". Now when asked where to save you'll want to select your desktop, click on the "Make New Folder" button at the bottom and click OK. This will put all of your numbered saves into a file on your desktop.

6) Open up Gibbed's Save Editor from the folder you put it in earlier on your desktop, click on
the folder icon at the top left, find the folder you extracted your individual numbered saves to on the desktop, open it, select a numbered save you want to edit and open it. ***NOTE*** Gibbed's save editor can ONLY open numbered saves named like this: Save_0003.xbsav NOT character saves.

Save the edited version of your save into the same folder with the other numbered saves either by overwriting the edited save OR by rising the number of the save like this for example: from Save_0009.xbsav to Save_0010.xbsav

9) Go back to the File Contents tab of your character's save in Modio and do one of the following two things:

a) If you overwrote the numbered save you edited: right click on the numbered save you edited IN Modio's File Contents tab, select delete and confirm.

b) if you raised the number of your numbered save up by 1 go to step 10

10) In Modio's File Contents tab of your character's save right click anywhere in the white space and select: "Inject File into Current Folder", find the modded numbered save in the folder on the desktop you extracted it to, click on it and click the open button.

11) Go to the "General File Info" tab of your save in Modio and click on "Rehash and Resign" and close Modio.

12) Open Xport360, find your character save in your storage device and delete it from your storage device. Now Drag the copy of your character save from your desktop into your storage device. OR if using a USB do the following(credit for USB instructions goes to kregano):

a. In Xtaf, delete the character save from your USB and then hit "Inject" and find your modded character save you dragged earlier onto the desktop(it should be named something like Name_54_Infiltrator_240210). This is the character save you opened with modio and from which you extracted the individual numbered saves you modded and put back into Modio before you rehashed and resigned the character save in order to now be able to put it back onto your USB.....with the modded numbered save inside it.

Once you find the character save named something like this: Name_21_Infiltrator_280210 you want to drag it from your storage device to your desktop. If you cannot do this then watch this video on how to fix it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4uJhSNKjyI

Go to the "raw" tab. Look for "Squad" and bellow it you'll see "Player" with a + sign next to it. Click on that + sign and scroll down to find "Weapons". Click on weapons and a small, easy to miss square with three dots in it will appear to the right of "Weapons", click on it. In there you can change the ammo of your weapons by changing the number BUT it is extremely important to remember that the heavy weapon is different. For the heavy weapon you need to put a negative number in the "Ammo Used Count"

Now to change your weapon you need to know what the weapon is called in the save editor and change the name in 2 different fields: under the weapon menu and in the "Loadout" menu.

***NOTE*** You can actually load a shotgun or assault rifle over your other weapon classes so you can force the Reverant LMG over your Pistol and it will load right. This is a way to remove the heavy weapon if you do not desire it.

Alternatively if you just want a weapon class gone without replacing it with anything you can delete the Loadout field AND then go to the weapons menu as explained above, click on the undesired weapon and hit the "Remove" button at the bottom.

WARNING: the spelling is extremely sensitive so spell those EXACTLY as above or you can corrupt your save. Also note that the weapons are NOT added to your ship's inventory and when you pick up another weapon you need to edit your save again....you cannot escape this. If you do not pick up the weapons during missions they will eventually after a while be forced in your inventory....at least some of them so pick up the weapons you find during missions and simply edit the save back to the special weapons. Additionally during the suicide mission's start each of the 8 panels you activate to aid the member you sent in the ventilation shaft will reset all ammo counts back to what they should be(all except the heavy weapon) so save your game whenever you can afterward and edit your ammo again. Also Kasumi's mission will also reset all your ammo.

4) Changing ME1 choices:

While the save editor lets you change the choices you made in Mass Effect 1 those changes will NOT be adjusted in your current playthrough. So you need to mod those choices on an importable ME2 save(ie one AFTER the game's end) and then import it into a new playthrough.

5) class change WARNING:

You can change your class at any time BUT if you already took the bonus weapon class or weapon from the collectr ship and your new class doesn't have access to that weapon/class you WILL loose it and NOT be able to select again in future playthroughs upon importing the character. So I recommend creating a new adept with the ME1 save import and then mod what you want there.

6) Changing your gender:

It is possible to change your gender BUT when you change gender you need to have a face of the oposite gender
ready to import on your shepard. With that said I suggest you create a brand new shepard of the opposite gender, open the save in the save editor and under the toolbox tab hit the export button. Now select an easy to remember place to save the exported apprearence. Now open the save of the shepard whose gender you want to change in the save editor, place/remove a checkmark in the box next to the words "is female" as neccessary, go to the Toolbox tab and hit Import. When prompted find the exported appearence you saved earlier and open it. Follow the steps 8 through 13 normally from here.

Change "EYE_Iris_Colour_Vector" name to "Emis_Color" (without the quotes) and then change the colour values

How to add a second bonus power to your character:

***WARNING*** You can only add ONE squad member bonus power because the power wheel only has 8 slots.

Go in Gibbed's editor to the Raw tab then under Squad you'll see Player with a + next to it. Press on that + sign and scroll down untill you see "Powers". Click on powers and a small, easy to miss square with three dots in it will appear to the right. Click on that square and you'll get the details about what powers your character has.
At the bottom there there's and "Add" button click on that and you'll begiven a new power field to fill out.

Now in the blank I left in the class name AND in the Name field you can enter one of the following: Barrier, Crush, ArmorPiercingAmmo, NeuralShock, Fortification, WarpAmmo, Reave, AntiOrganicAmmo, ShieldJack, GethShieldBoost, Dominate.

The powers of Kasumi and Zaeed are different since they are DLC so for them:

For Kasumi's power change ZaeedUnique with KasumiUnique in both the class Name and Name fields.

9) How to get the vanilla hero male/female poster face(thanks to javierabegazo for posting this):

WARNING: I highly recommend you export(and save somewhere easy to remember) your shepard's face before you go forward or you won't be able to get it back.

1. open Gibbed's Mass Effect 2 Save Editor and load any savegame where you want
to have the "poster face".
2.Under the "Raw" tab, "[-] 2. Squad", and a expanded "[+] Player" expand "[+] Appearance", locate the field called: "Has Morph Head", and change "True" to "False".

To change the "poster face" back to the orginal "playermade" version, just change the "Morph Head" field back to "True" and import that face from the face directory (or a new one). WARNING: Failure to IMPORT a face after changing "Morph Head" field back to "True" will lead to a CORRUPT savegame when you save the changes!!! So make sure to always IMPORT a face after this change (now I have warned about this issue).

10) How to mod hair/eye/lips color:

First you need to find the values for the save editor that will get your desired color so open up Paint on your computer and go to create a costum color. At the bottom right of the window that lets you mess with colors you should notice these three letters: B, G and R(they stand for blue, green and red) and each of them will have a value between 0 and 255 next to it. Take a pen and paper and a calculator and divide the three values for B, G and R by 255 and write the resulting numbers down(they should all be equal to or smaller than 1). These will be the values you'll need for the save editor(all equal to or smaller than 1).

Now open up your save in the save editor, go to the raw tab and then expand the following: Player->Appearence->Morph Head and click on "Vector Parameters". To the right of the vector parameters will appear a small square with three dots in it. Click on that square. Here most of the names should be self explanatory to change colors for hair, eye iris color and so on. The only one that isn't obvious is the: HED_Addn_Colour_Vector which is essentially your shepard's eyebrows.

Now select the part you want to change the color of and expand the "Value" field on the right side. Here you should see the three letters you wrote down earlier: B, G and R. Input the values you calculated earlier(should all be equal to or smaller than 1) and finish modding as explained above. Now if you want the color to glow brighter you can rise the values above 1 but you must maintain their percent proportions as part of your desired color or the color will change. Now in the editor there is a fourth letter "A" which stands for transparency or strength and for this you cannot go over 1. The A comes in handy if you think that the color you placed on your shepard is too bright in which case you can lower the 1 to a .9 or .8 or even lower to tone it down.

11) How to mod the male hair and facial hair:

Go to the raw tab and expand: Player->Appearence->Head Morph and click on Texture Parameters and then click on the [...] to the right of texture parameters. In the new save editor window that opens look on the left hand side for: "HED_Addn = ...." and click on it. Then on the right hand side you'll see "Value BIOG_HMM......" To the right of Value you want to change the code that starts with BIOG with one of the following codes:

12) Equipping Armor Components in Gibbed's(thanks to javierabegazo for this)

These highlighted ID's correspond to Shepard's Modular Armor that he has equipped.

I've found that despite NOT having purchased certain pieces of equipment, plugging in the right code will equip on you the corresponding Piece of Armor.

This can be VERY useful if you're not playing a NG+ game, but you want your Shepard to have good equipment from the very beginning of the game, for example, the +25% Melee Dmg bonus from "Strength Boost Shoulder Pads", which you would normally only get to acquire at Tuchanka, late in the game.